Government dismisses Amnesty human rights report on abuse of civilians

The pro-government European-Sudanese Public Affairs Council published a statement on 4 June dismissing the conclusions of a report by Amnesty International in May, entitled 'Sudan: The Human Price of Oil'. The Amnesty Report listed accounts of human rights violations carried out by the Sudanese Army, the Popular Defence Forces and other government-allied militias in the region of the oilfields of Western Upper Nile State. These included forcible displacement of civilians from oil-producing areas, aerial bombing and strafing of villages, destruction of crops and seizure of livestock, and the torture, rape and killing of civilians. The Public Affairs Council statement, according to the official Sudanese news agency (SUNA), said that the Amnesty report was clearly aimed at putting pressure on the oil companies working in Sudan, but had failed to produce any evidence that any such company was involved in abuses. It accused Amnesty of ignoring ample evidence of serious human rights violations by the rebel movement in the oil producing areas and of relying on claims made by a rebel commander, patently guilty of serious human rights abuses and war crimes, as well as partisan journalists. "The report was demonstrably unbalanced and demonstrably questionable in its content, sources, analyses and conclusions and Amnesty International's reputation can only but suffer as a consequence," it said. The Amnesty Report had also accused foreign oil companies involved in the extraction and pumping of oil in Sudan of turning a blind eye to or taking insufficient measures to prevent human rights violations. That report also noted that much of the suffering in the region was caused by inter-fighting between the various rebel factions, many of the leaders of which had changed sides on a number of occasions. It called on the Sudanese government to condemn human rights violations by its forces, to bring to justice those responsible and to ensure the protection of civilians in war zones. It urged the foreign oil companies to ensure that their activities in Sudan did not contribute to human rights violations, to investigate reports of violations and to raise concerns about reported violations with the government or Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) as appropriate. The report also called on the SPLA and other armed opposition groups to condemn publicly human rights abuses committed by their forces, to state their commitment to the Geneva Conventions and ensure the protection of civilians in war zones and to allow unrestricted access for humanitarian agencies and human rights monitors to areas under their control. It urged the international community to condemn human rights abuses in the context of the civil war in Sudan, to put pressure on all sides to observe international law, to monitor business investment in Sudan according to transparent human rights criteria and to press for unrestricted access for humanitarian agencies and human rights monitors to all areas of the country. A full text of the Amnesty International report can be found on the organisation's website: http://amnesty.org